Category: Uncategorized

Here is a disgruntled-looking bird I photographed at the zoo. I don’t even remember what kind of bird he is, but isn’t he charming?

As a result of several rounds of hard drive crashes with delays before recovery, and compressing the contents of multiple machines into one, somehow I ended up with massive numbers (tens of thousands) of photographs, many of which are duplicates, stored in no particular order. I’ve been working for some time now to identify duplicates and get the rest filed into some sort of orderly folders.

The problem is worse because in previous rounds of trying this, I unfortunately did some things like re-name files before I’d identified if there were any duplicates of that file. So now it’s not possible to find all duplicates just by looking for duplicate names. Further pitfalls include the existence of various thumbnails which might appear to be duplicates, but are obviously not full quality so they’re not the image you want to keep.

So the rough outline of my strategy is as follows:

1. Find and eliminate any duplicates that have the same name.
2. Then rename all files so that their creation date, with year first, is the first part of their filename. Then I should be able to find and eliminate any duplicates that had different names.
3. Sort the files into my folder hierarchy, which breaks it down by year and event or type of photo within the year.
4. It has just occurred to me that once I determine that a file is not a duplicate and is filed correctly, I could tweak its name to start with something like zz and it would now shift to the end of any folder that’s displaying photos by name. Once all the files are so tweaked, they should then sort by creation date because the next thing in the name would be the date.

To achieve this, I’m using a “smart” finder window, set to show all images on the Mac whose kind is “image”, sorted by name. The view is set to large thumbnails so I can easily see probable duplicates. Then I work through files whose names are NOT currently starting with dates, and work on eliminating duplicates.

So that’s the current strategy. Perhaps there are better ways to do this; I’m open to suggestions!

I’m going to start using this blog to bloviate about topics that I have no particular expertise on. In many cases, it’ll be things I come across in my daily life or conversations with friends. Sometimes it’ll be something I read or watched on TV or heard on the radio. In most cases, it’ll just be thoughts that are too unformed and wordy to make a pithy facebook post.

My rule for myself is: I pick a topic, I write about it for a session, and then I commit to posting whatever I’ve written at the end of that session, even if I feel that it’s incomplete and imperfect.

My goal in doing this is threefold.

First, I believe that this will make me a better writer. They say, after all, that the best way to write better is by writing more. In particular, I think I’ll benefit from some practice with saying something clear and concise about multifaceted topics. Forcing myself to publish what I’ve written is integral for this goal, because it is too easy to get caught up in the imperfection of what I’m writing and give up. So I will require myself to commit my thoughts, even if I feel they’re too vague, too disorganized, or too controversial. I’ll share my prose, even when I feel it’s clunky, unclear, or repetitive. And with that pressure, hopefully I’ll respond to the pressure and become less vague, more organized, and more clear. If not less controversial…

Second, as I organize my disparate thoughts enough to write about them, I find that my opinions themselves evolve. It’s not uncommon that I start with a position and try to outline the rational basis for it. Then I find that every supporting argument falls flat when I try to describe it clearly. I struggle to find the right words to show why my position is correct, until eventually it occurs to me that I cannot succeed because my position is not actually correct.

Third, this is just an outlet to dump thoughts and feelings that may not be appropriate to share in the conversation that triggered them in the first place. I might have things to say about a topic that would upset or irritate the person who raised the topic, and I see no value in doing that. But the ideas are still swirling around my brain, refusing to go away until I share them somewhere. Or I might have far too much to say about a topic, more than would be appropriate for a casual conversation. Perhaps this will help keep me from dominating conversations and sounding like a jackass.

Regardless, these thoughts all come with a big disclaimer: I’m often wrong, often uninformed, and the whole reason for putting things here in my personal blog is to avoid dumping them into someone else’s space.

Another variation.

Today’s project involved sanding and staining a box I made many years ago. At the time I didn’t bother to stain it because it was the proof of concept version of something I planned to make from nicer wood. It was a plan for a box on castors that would hold hanging files. You could roll it out when you were working, then tuck it away in a closet or whatever once you finished.

So it sat in my garage, unfinished, for years. When the old house flooded and I was grabbing any available sturdy container to pack things in, it got filled with clamps and ended up in the new garage. And once the clamps had more permanent storage, I thought “what the heck. I think I will finish this out for it’s originally intended purpose.”

Sanding and staining it was pretty straightforward. The bigger challenge was shaping two pieces of 1×2 to serve as rails to hold the hanging files.

It will need at least overnight for the finish to cure, and then I will attach the rails and castors and install it in my office closet.

Another square comparison, one where I only did back loop only when it was needed for the design. I think I like it better.

Here is the same square except that the one has all “back loop only” stitching, creating a pattern of lines behind the bobbles:

The difference is subtle, but real.

Gonna try some of the Stardust patterns with this same change.

We got together with friends last weekend and cooked a big delicious meal together. I was assigned to make the guacamole, which generated a pile of avocado seeds. I kept them for an experiment.

When I was a kid I sprouted several avocado seeds by suspending them in water with toothpicks. Sometimes this resulted in a plant, often it just resulted in a moldy mess. I came across something claiming the seeds will sprout if you just put them in soil and keep it damp. That seemed worth a try.

Since I gather they will take a while to sprout (if they ever do), I didn’t see a need to give them their own pot. I just tucked them amongst other seasonal plants, figuring that by the time the plants are sprouted and ready for transplant, the seasonal stuff will be finished.

So here is a nice avocado seed amongst some kale. We will see what happens!

Here is the completed square I showed before:

To get this i used the basic structure of the other Stardust Melody squares, which starts with a magic circle and works in the round using single crochets. It makes the corners by doing sc-ch2-sc which expands the square by two stitches per side each row.

The Stardust patterns get their ornamentation by crocheting back loop only, and then ducking back to pick up those front loops with various longer stitches. But it seemed to me that you could do any ornamental stitch as long as it kept things on that single crochet spacing.

The stitch I chose was based on a video I saw on Pinterest but somehow failed to pin, and don’t seem to be able to find a link to now. The little knot-like bumps happen when you draw up a loop just as you would for a sc, and then make a little two-stitch chain off that loop before joining back with the loop on your hook from the preceding sc. Then you follow with another sc. I did this on alternating rows and the result is attractive, hasn’t got excessive holes in it, and is size-compatible with my other squares.

For variety I could do back loop only sc instead or regular, which would have the little knots appear on a sort of chain. Or I could space the knots closer together.

I could also try some of the Stardust patterns where I only do back loop crochet on the stitches that need it, which would give a different background.

On other fronts, we watched a performance of “Anything Goes” done by a local high school theater group past night, at our neighborhood open air theater. They did a remarkable job for a bunch of kids. I hadn’t seen the musical before but was pleasantly surprised at how many of the songs I recognized and liked. The experience was a little marred because the person who sat in front of me had a Very Big Head and was tall and had lots of hair on the big head, so I was constantly having to bob back and forth to see around her to the stage. Not her fault, I suppose.

So I finished the twelfth of the free squares from the “Stardust Melodies” pattern:

My original idea has been to repeat the twelve or maybe buy the additional dozen she is selling. But I find myself wanting instead to play with the theme and make my own designs instead.

So here is an attempt midway through. It’s not as dense as the Stardust patterns but it’s not obviously holey so I think it might do. The little buttons aren’t too visible in the photo, but are pretty noticeable in person:

On other fronts – Bohemian Rhapsody is well worth watching, and tempts one to go to YouTube and watch Queen videos all night!